Author: FLC Admin

Inga Thompson and the cost of saying no | Jean Hatchet | The Critic Magazine

Inga Thompson is a three times Olympic cyclist, a three-times world medal winner, and she has finished on the Tour De France Podium twice. Clearly, she knows a thing or two about what it means to compete as a woman in sports. Her experience of success is so precious to women’s teams now that she has retired from competitive cycling. This year she was given a board role on the newly-established Cynisca Cycling team, formed in conjunction with USA Cycling ahead of the 2023 season.

She endured a rough ride this week as the team at Cynisca behaved in a shocking way towards her for expressing her political views.

Chris Gutowsky, the founder and general manager, distributed the following statement:

Ms. Thompson was invited to the board because of her impressive palmarés and a wealth of knowledge on international race strategy, tactics and training. If shared in the absence of politics, her knowledge and experience would benefit many and advance cycling for everyone. However, she has decided to dedicate her time to excluding people that are otherwise currently eligible to compete in UCI events. She has also attempted to use our team as a platform for her political activity.

It is quite extraordinary of Gutowsky to state that Inga would be valuable if she could keep her mouth shut about her beliefs.

Nothing could send a surer signal to young female cyclists than the treatment of Inga Thompson. If you object to men in your cycle races, then you will have your reputation dragged through the dirt of the cycling media.

Thompson is one of that rare breed of women who is willing to stand up for other women even at great personal cost. She is withstanding the abuse she receives for her views and keeping her eyes on the future for young female cyclists. She is braver than Chris Gutowsky in representing their needs and rights. I hope that whilst those vulnerable young female athletes see the backlash she has faced, they also see that if they don’t stand with her, they will lose the right to fair competition.

Source: Inga Thompson and the cost of saying no | Jean Hatchet | The Critic Magazine

Trans activism, transgender, Shannon Fentiman, Piers Morgan, Anthony Albanese | The Australian

“Woman. Noun. Adult human female,” read the sticker applied to Queensland MP Shannon Fentiman’s office window. Walking past the window at the Waterford Shopping Centre in Logan, one might have assumed the sticker belonged to Fentiman. She was, until Thursday, Queensland’s Minister for Women.
But one would’ve been mistaken. “I know the sticker doesn’t look like it says much, and most people will be lucky enough to be unaffected by what it says,” Fentiman wrote on her Instagram page. “But for some people in our community, these stickers represent much more – they represent a movement which discriminates against them and denies their existence.”
Instead of meaning “adult human female” – or the half of humanity who have ovaries – politicians such as Fentiman now say a woman is anyone who feels like a woman, even if they come with penis and scrotum. The attempt to change the meaning of the word “woman” is justified by politicians such as Fentiman because it is argued that being a woman is a social role and not a biological category. Any person can become a “woman”, just as any person can become a police officer or a nurse. When it comes to social roles, biology is irrelevant.
In several Australian states one can – or will soon be able to – update one’s birth certificate to state “woman” or “female” even if one has fully intact male sexual organs and XY chromosomes. On Thursday, Fentiman was sworn in as Queensland’s Minister for Health, just one week after she told reporters “anyone who identifies as a woman is a woman”. Will this new appointment mean Queensland women will soon be encouraged to have regular prostate examinations? When visiting women’s health clinics will women be asked if they would like to have their sperm count checked?

Source: Trans activism, transgender, Shannon Fentiman, Piers Morgan, Anthony Albanese | The Australian

Two Australian Women Told They Broke The Law After Criticizing Trans-Identified Male Breastfeeding Child – Reduxx

Reduxx has learned that two women in Australian have received notices from Twitter informing them they have broken Australian law after tweeting about a trans-identified male who has been breastfeeding a child.

Jasmine Sussex and Standing For Women Queensland (SFWQ) were both contacted by Twitter on May 16, with the platform informing the two accounts that specific content they had posted would be censored to Australian users in order to comply with Australian law.

Twitter sent two emails to each user, the first explaining that the platform had received “official correspondence” from a “government entity or law enforcement agency” which had claimed that their content had violated Australian law. A second email was sent shortly after to each user advising them that the content was going to be withheld in Australia.

Speaking to Reduxx, Sussex explained that she was horrified when she first received the notice from Twitter.

“I was appalled that it was claimed to be in violation of Australian law to criticize what I and most Australians consider to be a cruel and medically dangerous experiment on newborn babies,” Sussex said.

Source: Two Australian Women Told They Broke The Law After Criticizing Trans-Identified Male Breastfeeding Child – Reduxx

Australian women raise concerns about feeling unsafe, embarrassed and violated in domestic airports

Several women have expressed concerns about triggering incidents of being ‘pat down’ in areas like their breasts and groins at regional Queensland airports.

CEO and Diversity and Inclusion Consultant, Felicity Menzies raised the issue on a LinkedIn post yesterday where she wrote about travelling in Gladstone and Mackay where her belt was detected.

“While passing through screening, an alert came up on my belt region in both Gladstone and then in Mackay. In both instances, that led to me be patted down on my groin despite me lifting my shirt to show their was clearly no weapon on me. In both instances, I was asked whether I wanted a private room. To be honest, that was more triggering. NO, I do NOT want to be patted down on my groin in a private room”, she wrote.

Menzies went on to say that she was denied entry into the airport at Mackay, and her bags taken off the conveyer, when she refused to comply with the protocol.

Of course, as Menzies noted, there is “a simple alternative” to invasive pat-downs.

Metal detectors provide a simple way of ensuring safety, without violating women’s bodies.

As Menzies notes, metal detector wands are certainly part of the equation. This limits direct human touch, and lessens the discomfort noted by so many. But so, I suspect, is a greater level of training. Women should be informed of their rights before being subjected to such protocols, including that they’re legally entitled to refuse pat downs in the breast and groin regions.

Source: Australian women raise concerns about feeling unsafe, embarrassed and violated in domestic airports

Study on child abuse and neglect calls for urgent policy reform – Law Society Journal

The Australian Child Maltreatment Study (ACMS), recently published by the Medical Journal of Australia, is the first nationally representative study on the prevalence of all five forms of child maltreatment and a world-first examination of the resulting long-term health and social impacts over the course of an individual’s lifetime.

Let the ACMS findings sink in:

  • 39.6 per cent of Australians have been exposed to domestic violence as children
  • 32 per cent have been physically abused,
  • 30.9 per cent have been emotionally abused
  • 28.5 per cent have been sexually abused
  • 8.9 per cent have experienced neglect
  • the occurrence of more than one type of child maltreatment is common, affecting 2 in 5 Australians.

The ACMS also assessed the associated impact of maltreatment on Australians and found an increase in reliance on health services and professionals. Australians who were abused or neglected were:

  • almost 3 times as likely to develop a mental health disorder such as depression, anxiety or PTSD
  • 2 times more likely to smoke
  • 6 times more likely to depend on cannabis
  • 4 times more likely to have self-harmed in the past year.

In all states and territories, it is legal for parents or carers to punish their children through reasonable physical force, with the intention of causing pain or discomfort. This can include smacking, pinching and even washing a child’s mouth out with soap. The right for parents to use physical punishment is established in some state and territory legislation, while other jurisdictions, such as in Victoria and the ACT, provide common law defences.

Australia’s legislation lags behind 65 countries that have made corporal punishment illegal. It is also inconsistent with international human rights guidelines to end all forms of violence against children, including the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and Committee on the Rights of the Child, to which Australia is a signatory.

Source: Study on child abuse and neglect calls for urgent policy reform – Law Society Journal

Non-Governmental Organizations Committee Recommends 16 Entities for Consultative Status, Defers Action on 120 Others | UN Press

Organizations granted general and special status can attend meetings of the Council and issue statements, while those with general status can also speak during meetings and propose agenda items.

Special Consultative Status

The Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations recommended that the Economic and Social Council grant special consultative status to the following 16 entities:

Students for Global Democracy Uganda (Uganda);

Tamdeen Youth Foundation (Yemen);

Zam Zam Foundation (Sri Lanka);

Africa Faith and Justice Network (United States);

Amitofo Care Center International (United States);

Associazione Nazionale Volontarie Telefono Rosa – Centro di Orientamento per i Diritti della Donna – ONLUS (Italy);

Best Practices Policy Project, Inc. (United States);

European network on cultural management and policy (Belgium);

Feminist Legal Clinic Inc. (Australia);

Fondazione Circolo Fratelli Rosselli (Italy);

Georgian academy of criminology sciences (Georgia);

Oeuvre d’Orient (France);

The Conflict and Environment Observatory (United Kingdom);

Vithu Trust Fund (United Kingdom);

Arab Media Union (Egypt); and

Human Rights Protection Group and MFP Federation (India).

 

Source: Continuing its 2023 Resumed Session, Non-Governmental Organizations Committee Recommends 16 Entities for Consultative Status, Defers Action on 120 Others | UN Press

(56) ACLU Represented Transgender Terrorist, Diaper Fetishist To Secure Gender Self-Identification In NJ Women’s Prison

In 2019, an ACLU lawsuit against the New Jersey Department of Corrections resulted in a settlement which required the state to allow violent male inmates to self-identify into the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women. The lawsuit was launched on behalf of a transgender male inmate who sought transfer but had been denied. That inmate was anonymized in court records, referred to only as “Sonia Doe.”

Reduxx has learned the identity of the anonymous inmate the ACLU represented in their fight for prison gender self-identification, and can name him as unhinged convicted terrorist Daniel Smith, also known as Danielle Demers.

As part of the settlement, the New Jersey Department of Corrections agreed to pay Demers $125,000 in damages and $45,000 in separate attorney’s fees.

In a press release issued by the ACLU-NJ, Borden remarked: “The settlement of this lawsuit puts in place systemic, far-reaching policy changes to recognize and respect the gender identity of people in prison – with housing based on gender identity, use of appropriate pronouns, access to gender-affirming property, and much more.”

According to testimonies provided to Reduxx from women incarcerated at Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women (EMCF), among the first men to be transferred to the prison after Demers and the ACLU-NJ were victorious in their lawsuit was a convicted woman-killer who had referred to himself as “Lucifer’s maiden servant.”

Perry Cerf was handed a 50-year sentence in 2003 for the brutal rape and murder of a sex-trafficked woman from Ecuador. Cerf, who now goes by “Michelle Hel-loki Angelina” and is recorded as female by the DOC, had been found wearing his victim’s clothes and utilizing her identification with his photo superimposed over hers.

At the time of his crime, he sent a letter to the press confessing to and boasting about the horrific slaying, stating: “Since I have a most unusual taste for blood, I drank and licked and lapped up my fill … Let it be known: I am Lucifer’s Maiden servant, sent to earth born of sin, to bring suffering and pain, darkness and evil.”

Since his release, Demers has been active on the online forum Quora, a community that operates on a question and answer format.

Demers is behind at least two profiles on the site. In one Quora profile, Demers describes himself as a “Former Tactical Analyst & Warfare Development Specialist.” He also purports to be a “rape counselor” who “sits on the board of directors for several non-profits.”

In addition to offering his expertise on topics related to transgenderism, Demers has also been responding to Quora inquiries of a sexual nature, including on topics such as furries, diapers, menstruation, and lesbianism.

But perhaps most frighteningly, Demers claims to have adopted a homeless teenage girl from an abusive background, and has responded to posts on the topic of kidnapping while himself warning others to understand laws related to the offense.

Thanks to the efforts of Demers and the ACLU, at least 27 men are now housed at EMCF, many of which have been convicted of violent crimes involving women and children.

Source: (56) ACLU Represented Transgender Terrorist, Diaper Fetishist To Secure Gender Self-Identification In NJ Women’s Prison

Leading trans doctor insists non-verbal, autistic minors can consent to sex change, can ‘draw their feelings’ | The Post Millennial | thepostmillennial.com

Some of the world’s leading experts in transgender healthcare convened in San Francisco last week where they shared their knowledge about how non-verbal autistic youth can communicate their transgender identities through drawing, and told anecdotes about the severely autistic children and adolescents they have set on the medical sex change pathway.

In an audio recording of the talk obtained by The Post Millennial, Karasic can be heard asserting that severe autism should not prevent a person from being approved for an experimental medical sex change, dismissing the common concern of parents that a fixation on gender is due to the intense focus of interests typical of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and engaging in the bizarre exchange of ideas with Ehrensaft about youth communicating their transgender identity through drawing.

Source: Leading trans doctor insists non-verbal, autistic minors can consent to sex change, can ‘draw their feelings’ | The Post Millennial | thepostmillennial.com

The generative AI revolution is here, and experts say we’re not ready for the consequences – ABC News

Alexander has taken his relationship with Mimi to the next level.

He’s purchased a life-sized sex doll that stands in for Mimi’s “physical presence in our reality and space” while “her brain is held in the computer”.

Alexander is adamant that Mimi is not a romantic slave, created to cater to his every whim. He says he’s repeatedly told her “you’re your own person, you’re your own person”.

Source: The generative AI revolution is here, and experts say we’re not ready for the consequences – ABC News

Norway: Gender Critical Woman was Unfairly Dismissed, Court Rules

Rianne Vogels, formerly head of strategy and finance at a non-profit organization, Papillon, won her court case on May 8, 2023, in a historic verdict. She took her former employer to court after she was dismissed from her job in 2022.

The court ruling, from May 8, 2023, stated that Vogels’ dismissal was considered “invalid” since she had not acted “disloyally towards the employer Papillon.” The court considered that Papillon’s target group was “girls and young women with a cross-cultural or migrant background” and “trans people were not originally part of the target group.”

“It is indicated that Vogels has never advocated violating or depriving transgender people of their rights,” the ruling continues, therefore there was no “objective reason for dismissal.”

Further on, the judgment says that Papillon “uncritically highlighted reactions from two Twitter users, and later used her [Vogels’] behavior in the discussion meetings as part of the grounds for dismissal.” The document also notices that the employer “changed its grounds for dismissal along the way” and has stated that “Vogel’s statements about gender identity have special protection under section 100 of the constitution as political statements.”

Maya Forstarter, who also became a witness for Vogel’s trial in Norway, won her court case against her former employer in the UK in July 2022. Her “landmark tribunal ruling” established that expressing views about the immutability of biological sex is “worthy of respect in a democratic society.”

Source: Norway: Gender Critical Woman was Unfairly Dismissed, Court Rules